Unwisdom of the Solomons

WHICH product "reinvigorates any time fatigue overtakes you"? If you believe the sales pitch, it's oxygen. Canisters containing about 10 minutes' worth of 99.5 per cent pure oxygen are sold in Britain as an "aid to healthier living, countering the effects of smog and pollution". And in Japanese cities, bottled oxygen is available at bars and from dispenser machines. But if you are tempted to splash out on some fresh air, why stop at an ordinary variety when you could treat yourself to lungfuls of pure tropical rainforest oxygen? Of course, there's absolutely no difference - one oxygen molecule is just the same as another. But that's just a small inconvenience to those behind one of the most bizarre marketing projects of our times.

The idea comes from the government of Solomon Islands, a string of islands scattered over some 1.35 million square kilometres of the southwestern Pacific. Plans to ...

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